Spectacular Southwest Africa (Namibia/South Africa)

Fourteen nights from Windhoek to Cape Town, guided, one way across the Namib with roughly forty per cent of the route on gravel.

This is the most demanding thing Renedian runs in this part of Africa, and the gravel is not incidental: Namibian dirt roads are fast, loose and corrugated, and two weeks of them asks for real off-road competence rather than enthusiasm.

Sesriem and Sossusvlei come first in the Namib-Naukluft, where the dunes reach three hundred metres and Big Daddy is among the tallest in the world, with Deadvlei beneath it, a white clay pan studded with trees that died eight hundred years ago and never rotted. Aus and Luderitz follow in the diamond country on the coast, then Ai-Ais and the Fish River Canyon, usually described as the second largest canyon on earth. Springbok comes next across the South African border, then Clanwilliam and the Cederberg, and the winelands and ocean roads into Cape Town at the end.

The bike hire is included, with a BMW F800GS as standard and upgrades available; the full inclusions are not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking. Fifteen days one way means a flight home from a different country to the one flown into, which is worth factoring into the cost. The dry winter months from May to September are the window, since the desert heat outside them is punishing on a bike. Sossusvlei at first light, with the dunes half in shadow, is the single image this tour is sold on and it earns the billing.